Paralysis of the Mind

Less than two years ago, it was a hilarity to think of any Democrat topping our, ahem, war-time Dear Leader. His approval ratings were high 60s, and the media covered him as though his approval ratings were mid-80s. He Walked Tall, Talked Tough, and Ate Plenty of Fiber.

But a year ago, he had fallen. He hovered at 50 percent approval. He faced a tenacious John Kerry, who was libeled, slandered, ridiculed for being rich and smart, and spoke well when it was obvious that we really wanted someone who couldn't say "subliminal." Kerry was so good that he was within a few nasty lies of snatching the presidency from, as the media covered him, the most popular president since FDR/JFK/Lincoln. Nedra Pickler, I'm looking at you, dear.

And now? Sweet mercy, America just does NOT like George W. Bush.

A very bad looking poll flew up from SurveyUSA a few days ago. There are 9 states where Bush's approval rating tops his disapproval rating.

Can I repeat that? That would be NINE states. Two states, Louisiana and North Carolina, show Bush even in approval/disapproval. And that's it.

By this poll, Bush has lost Kansas and Alaska, two states that would elect Jabba the Hutt to Senate if he ran as a Republican. He's losing North Carolina, a state that elected Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms to the Senate AT THE SAME TIME! For years! Florida? He's down by 9 percent. And Ohio, sweet, sweet Ohio? His approval rating is 37(!) percent, with a disapproval rating of 60 percent.

Don't get me wrong, polls are weighted toward people who a)have phones, b) aren't at church at 6 p.m. and c) are willing to take time to answer questions. For those obvious reasons, they skew a little toward intelligent, non-Ned Flanders-Christian voters, which aren't the types of people that are going to come out in droves for Bush.

But there's a lot more to it then that. There's Cindy Sheehan, who has turned into the biggest story of the summer. There's Bill Frist, who's led a host of Republicans into the pro-stem cell research half of society. There's the media, who, almost in shock, suddenly realize that Bush isn't Mr. Popularity anymore.

And, yes, there's George W. Bush, who has taken his goofy 'I'm in over my head here' smirk and just keeps making the same speech. Comparing the war on terror to the World Wars? I couldn't have been the only person who thought, "Wow, he's really losing it." Talking about success in Iraq? I mean, has he READ that constitution they're about the pass, the one that almost guarantees that within a year Sharia will be declared the law of the land? Has he noticed the amputees? The dead Iraqi civillians? Or the fact that people around the country held candlelight vigils because he will not simply talk to a woman who gave her son to the war he wanted so badly?

But this doesn't seem to matter to him. And we all know that Bush could whip around and nuke Topeka, Kansas, for no other reason then he felt like it, and about 38 percent of the country would support him. The weird thing is that he keeps on his path where he's decided that only those 38 percent matter and -- and this is crucial -- the other 62 percent will eventually see the error of their ways and come around.

That's not leadership. I don't know if it's meglomania or if he's just so insulated from the rest of the world he doesn't really know what's happening. Either way, his supposedly genius advisers are screwing up much faster then they can spin.

All this means nothing, of course, because Bush and his band have all the power. They can ramrod John Roberts down our gullets (imagine, a brash, arrogant white Christian conservative male... golly, how didn't we see THAT coming) they can keep us in Iraq until 2009, we can even nuke Topeka -- God, I'd love to see the Nedra Pickler article trying to explain that one away -- and there's not much we can do about it.

But things are hardly lost. As a New Yorker, I've mentioned before how much I love that my very unpopular Governor, George E. Pataki, is mounting a run for President in 2008. Pataki's a run of the mill moderate Republican. But HE sees which way the wind is blowing -- because today it was announced that New York and 8 other states in the Northeast are going to be putting the Kyoto Accords into action, no matter WHAT the Feds say.

Pataki's not exactly my first choice for President on the Republican side. But he's a career politician who's made it through three terms in a state that is Democrat-dominated. He, like a rat, knows when a ship is sinking. And he knows that the closest thing to the right's abortion-frenzy on the left is environmental issues.

As the country tires of the wars, Bush's cocky attitude, the gas prices, and the whole deal Dear Leader has presented, Pataki and other Republicans are going to start positioning themselves for 2008 -- and that could mean a lot of changes that might just keep Bush from tossing us all into a yawning chasm that the 38% want.

I'd can't rely on Republicans to drive this country back to sense, because they don't have it in them. But I certainly can rely on politicians to watch polls, and to know when someone is unpopular. And then it doesn't matter what party they are, because the rats will flee the ship just as fast as they can.

2006 might just be interesting after all.

Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?

Even more rarely asked is the question: Why the #&#$%^* hell is Dr. Phil popular?

I love Dr. Phil, not because of his homespun witticisms (I have heeded his cry to confront my paper tiger, and whatnot) but because he provides such a perfect window into the American soul.

Basically, if you've ever studied or listened to Dr. Phil... I feel sorry for you. But seriously, listening to his advice, it basically boils down to a few simple tenets:

1. Discipline your children
2. Have some self-control (fatty)
3. Remember that other people have feelings too

And that's it. All three are so obscenely self-evident, you -- the impersonal "you" which means "you, over there, reading this with sense" might be tempted to wonder what the draw is.

Then again, most Americans don't have a ton of common sense going on. I've written several times on poor parenting and of course, Americans have never had an ounce of self-control. But its the third one that always slays me.

Dr. Phil specializes in the "husband who is too busy with his " squaring off with the "wife who is nice but somewhat ." This battle always typically ends with the husband realizing,"Wow, I'm not as receptive to her needs as I was when I was 20" and the wife realizing "Wow, he'll change and I'll be less of a problem." Everyone goes home happy to confront their paper tiger.

Now, relationships are always a blank spot in society. Despite what the freaks and fools in celebrity "journalism" tell you, unless you know BOTH sides of a relationship closely and personally, you know nothing about their relationship. Indeed, sometimes you can be blind-sided by a relationship happening between two people you know very well -- but that's definitely a good thing. A close relationship, by its definition, is a secret that nobody else has an inkling about. What do you call her or him, what they say in the dark, how you feel -- be it good or bad -- aren't things that need to be publicly disseminated.

But what SHOULD be public is the fact that in a relationship -- ANY relationship -- both sides need to be at least a little attuned to how the other half feels. And this is where Dr. Phil earns his keep, because we live in a time and age where empathy is dying, if not dead. Not enough Americans can discipline properly, not enough have the self-control they ought to, and they definitely need to be told constantly to walk a mile in another person's shoes, because they otherwise wouldn't think of it themselves.

As far as I've ever seen, once people have an idea they like, they stick by it, no matter what. There's no room for change, no room for growth. Everything is 2-dimension or, worse, two colors: black and white.

But this extends way past the airy topics. Again, look at relationships. How two people can spend a life together and yet be so completely incapable bridging a gap of their own devising is breath taking. We really can't figure out that all she wants is to be complimented once while wearing that dress, or that maybe just once, he'd like to go play poker without getting a massive roll of the eyes? Apparently not, unless Dr. Phil is smart enough to tell us.

What starts small, though, gets a lot bigger. The rich and powerful have no empathy for the poor or disaffected. There's ugly, blatant racism, but then there's also the dinner-table epithet: "Well, if they didn't dress like that/talk like that, they'd succeed in life." Yes, it's a lack of empathy. But that's the heart of racism -- where the fear of the unknown, because you can't walk that mile in their shoes, turns ugly and bitter.

My favorite lack of empathy, of course, is how adults prattle on about kids. Old people -- and that's what they are, no matter their age -- whine about how horrible and snotty kids are, what kind of nonsense they're listening to, what filth they're saying or wearing, and the like. And they're right in a way, because there was no Eminem when they were younger and 14-year-old girls didn't wear belly shirts, but they're also betraying how they've completely forgotten what being a kid is about, with all the insecurities, the cliques, the idea of being "cool" and the other things that you can laugh about when you're older. Yeah, Eminem is hard to take for the old people. So were the Rolling Stones once. Neither are going to topple polite society just yet.

Yet many people just eat it up. Christianity was supposed to be founded on the bedrock of empathy; you can see exactly how many ways THAT went wrong. Liberalism is supposed to be about providing a safety net for those who aren't as gifted or lucky in life, but if you're a conservative, to them, you're just stupid, and unworthy. 'Course if you're a conservative, that makes liberals fools, homosexuals must be fags who need to be persecuted and the media is completely batshit. And if you're the media, well, the common folk don't know anything, anyway.

See how easy that is? And it all comes back to being so selfish, so insulated, so completely self-absorbed that empathy withers away. And that's a shame, because it will only breed more problems -- as evidenced by 9/11 and the rush to kill 'towelheads', no matter what the evidence might have suggested -- and we'll just keep rushing around, lost in our own little world, making decisions that make sense to us and help us -- and no others. Which basically describes U.S. foreign policy for the past 150 years, eh?

It isn't that hard to consider how other people are feeling, and it just because someone disagrees with you, it doesn't have to be taken personally. We'd all be a lot better off if every once in a while, we took off our own shoes, and went for a little walk, if only to find that paper tiger.

Posted by: T-Diddy / 8/16/2005 07:30:00 PM

Upside, I'm going to see the Rolling Stones.

Downside, I had to sell a kidney to get there.

I guess this means I can't drink at the show.

I work with a woman who hates everyone.

She saves particular venom for two types of people, though. One are sex offenders -- hoo boy does she hate (and by extension, fear) sex offenders -- anpoliticiansns.

It would be a lot easier to understand if, say, she was spouting some sort of orthodoxy. She adores the troops, hates the war, hates Bush, hates Pataki, hates Democrats, hates Republicans and loathes independents. (She appears to not hate Hillary Clinton. I don't know if this is a woman thing or a smokescreen.)

It's a little hard to figure out. But at the same time, it isn't -- she's a solid reactionary, selfish American. And for every one of me, there's at least 25 of her.

Why she hatpoliticiansans, though, is the key to turning our country away from the brink of idiocy.

Most Americans hapoliticiansans for a number of reasons. Everyone -- despite having the power to vote for different types of people -- hate the two major parties. Most people consider politics sleazy or worse and think the people who rise to the top of the system the worst of the bunch. (Although my hatin' co-worker does find plenty of bile for local pols, as well.)

But this ought to be an enormous tip-off to whatever is left of the left: A big part of the reason people politiciansicans is that they're actually expecting something from them.

It sounds amazing. But it's so self-evident: We like potholes fixed, smooth roads, low-interest student loans to state-run universities, local sports teams, veterans hospitals, prisons stocked with guards, policemen, firefighters, the troops and, yes, even space exploration. We love it, and we don't want to see it go away.

What's the end result of Grover Norquist's minions hijacking of government? All of it would go away. Conservatives (and by extension, libertarians) always say "No, we wouldn't get rid of (fill in the blank here)" but the end of taxes would be the end of government as we know it today. I know I'd have fun joining the local militia, paving roads on my weekends and paying my monthly dues to PoliceCorp. so that Officer Friendly could patrol my street once a night.

Few grasp that. But that's also because the right presents an alternate reality that fills in those blanks.

How much does Rush Limbaugh love the troops? He says so all the time. Yet he stumps for the same people who have slashed veterans funding over the last 5 years -- while at the same time creating many more veterans who need help, thus stretching the budget even further. How much does Anne Coulter love the environment? Plenty; she supports the Clean Skies and Clean Forests acts. Unfortunately, those two acts are Orwellian at best; Clean Skies gives companies license to pollute more than in the past, and Clean Forests lets loggers go hog wild just about anywhere not named "Yellowstone Park." Does Bill O'Reilly lurve the little guy? Dammit, yes he does! He's against that mean estate tax -- which he loves to call the "death tax" to scare ya. Sadly, that estate tax he hates so much applies ONLY to estates worth millions of dollars and the only people he's helping are millionaires.

That retelling of the world lets the people, who are expecting something, think that most government regulations are bad. How does that reconcile? It doesn't, other than to make the true believers so cynical that no matter what the government does, it won't be enough. And it provides enough political impetus to make nervous pols slash taxes to the point of no return.

Just look at my own glorious state, New York. We're up to our eyeballs in debt. And we still have one of the highest state tax burdens in the nation. But it still, obviously, is not enough. And while a few states are getting to the point where they're either going to have to close down services or jack up taxes, the scarier thought is what's going to happen when the nation gets there.

But that point needs to be explained. Lost in the Christian noise of politics has been the economy. Taxes, despite what the alternate universe says, are not a punishment; they exist for a common cause. And nobody is saying what needs to be said: If there are no taxes, there are no roads. Or, I should say, there are no cheap plastic Wal-Mart toll roads that RoadCorp. would provide. (Half cost, I'm sure, and probably one-tenth quality).

If people are still angry, then it is not too late to stem the tide a little bit. People see the taxes they lose on their pay stub, but often don't get a look at what that piece of the pie pays for. Let the alternate universe crowd shriek all they'd like; nearly everyone in this country has benefitted from the government's largesse at some point in their life. It's easy to hate taxes, but hard to explain why you hate the government if you're on welfare, in the military, went to a state college, or have a state job. A lot of people fit in those slots. And a lot of people, given the opportunity, would bitch and moan -- and then accept that there IS a greater good, nothing is free, and once in a while, it's okay to pay in if you're going to get it back later. We'll even change it from FICA to "Christmas Club" if it makes you feel better.

But also, to please the really hardcore, we should be able to offer them immunity from the government. It would be cool for them, I bet. No taxes! Imagine! It would be great! Hiring Dog the Bounty Hunter to track down a burglar 'cause the cops don't come to your house! Tooling around in an unlicensed and unplated '87 Mustang! Roadwork on the weekends! Golly, I can't wait to move to Free Hampshire. Oh, sorry, Wal-Hampshire.

That taxes are so hated, yet the sort of shenanigans that the big drug companies or Wal-Mart do regularly are not, I'll never understand. I'd ask Bill O'Reilly, but he'd probably just yell at me for not being rich enough to have to worry about the estate tax.

Until then, though, here's to expecting something from my leaders.